Jane's F/A-18 with G400 MAX...problems...

[Chump]

Here's my specs:
PII 350 128 MB RAM
G400 MAX w/ latest cert drivers
Directx 7
SB Live!
2940UW w/9GB
Win98SE

The game runs like crap in all resolutions-from 640x480 to 1024x768...
Choppy...
Is my system underpowered or do I need to use other drivers...what's the deal?
Anyone else with similar problems?

[Edguy]

Not sure about that particular game...

but.. the last certified drivers are 5.20, you should at least try 5.30 or 5.41...
i had some troubles in some games with the 5.20 drivers... im using 5.30 at the moment.

so try some newer drivers, and if you're not already doing it... use the latest Live!ware for the Sblive.

[Chump]

I've tried them all...decided to stick to the latest cert drivers until I hear a solution...lost a night's sleep already
Don't feel like getting store credit either...

[paulcs]

I suspect the 5.20 drivers are the slowest available, and while this is a novel approach to dealing with a speed problem, I doubt it's going to speed things up.

This is a very new game, and I'm sure there are bugs to be worked out and patches to be posted on Jane's site. It might be a few weeks before Jane's posts anything.

You mentioned you experimented with different resolutions. Are you using 32-bit color depth? If so, have you tried 16-bit.

There's no doubt about it. The G400 likes fast processors, a blessing for early adopters and overclockers, but not necessarily the best solution for people who use the same processor for long periods of time. Your CPU does just meet the minimum recommended requirements posted on Jane's site, but I'm always suspicious of these claims.

Someone recently posted that he is successfully running this game, and that it is "taxing the hell" out of his system. He's running a PIII 500 at 572 MHz and 256 Mb of RAM. You may be having a resource problem. Again, if you're at 32-bit, try knocking down the color depth to 16-bit. Keep the resolution low. Turn off some bells and whistles. High quality sound, if this feature is available, might be slowing you down.

Using Matrox's uninstaller, I would uninstall the certified drivers and use either 5.30 or 5.41. The certified drivers are certainly slower and probably a lot buggier than the newer drivers.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 16 January 2000).]

[Chump]

Thanks Paulcs...i'll try that....
I'll return in a few with the results

[Chump]

i'm back....no love with the newer drivers!
You are probably right...need faster processor...

[paulcs]

Pentium III 500's are really cheap now. I think Intel is due for a price drop at the end of the month as well, so they might even be cheaper in a couple of weeks. It'll be interesting to see where the 550 and 600 MHz parts end up as well.

If Intel ever get its act together with the 750 and 800 MHz parts, I'd expect more big drops.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Kraigman]

Don't bother. There are problems with G400s and F/A-18. Try any of the carrier landing training missions. Ok but slow first time. Run it again. This time stuttering is very evident, and as you approach the carrier, objects like the carrier deck, then con tower simply disappear (actually vague 'ghosts' of these objects can still be seen). Seems like some compatibility issue between G400 drivers, Direct-X, and/or the game itself. On my other machine, using a GeForce DDR, things are smoother and the problem is not evident. Lots of posts regarding this problem, but still no word from Jane's yet.

[exG-man]

Hi Chump,
As Paul wrote you, I have F/A 18 on a P3 500 w/ 256 mb and it REALLY crawls on default (4) setting. I'm going to try dropping some of the seldom used/seen effects and leave terrain and object where it is and see if that helps. I'm at 572 mhz now and plan on wringing a little more out of it. Paul was sure right about one thing (actually, he's been right about a lot of things...he's helped me out quite a bit) the prices are dropping on P3 500's. I got mine from buy.com a while ago for $260 (retail boxed) but I would check on www.ibuyer.com. they've got some great price statistics. Let me know if you come up with anything that speeds things up and I'll do the same. Good luck and good hunting.....
Bud

[This message has been edited by exG-man (edited 17 January 2000).]

[Chump]

thanks for all the help guys...
looks like its just that time to bust the piggy bank!
So you think going from 350Mhz to 500Mhz is big enuf jump to spend money...or should I spend a lot more an totally overhaul with 700+ when it becomes more stable?

[Kookstick]

Like Kraigman said, the problem lies with the G400 and F/A 18, I got a post directly from Matt Wagner @ janes and he admitted to me that they never even had a g400 in there when making this game and then they sent it across the country to be tested and he had no idea if a g400 would even work even though it CLEARLY states G400 on the recommended hardware on the box. This really pissed me off and not to mention alot of other people with geforce and voodoo 3's that are not working properly. Needless to say Matt hasn't been around that site much lately and I really doubt they are putting this problem on the top of their list. Later

[paulcs]

Problems with the G400, GeForce and Voodoo3. What does work with it?

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[exG-man]

This "Jane's" crap has got me confused and angered, especially since I own USAF as well as F/A 18. I uninstalled both games, both 3DFX Directx 7 beta and PowerDesk 5.41 and then cleaned my registry good by way of Norton's.
I then reinstalled all drivers and both games and tested EVERY SINGLE resolution, depth and option level in F/A 18.

And here's the news and my rant.....My Voodoo2 SLI can run F/A 18 well with all options at 1024x768 and with anti-aliasing on. My Max can BARELY run at 800x600x16 with the same settings, and I do mean BARELY. What does this mean?! It means all of you who said the box was a lie are abso$%^&inglutely right! There's no way in hell that an SLI, even at 24 mb @ 92mhz should be able to "beat" a Max with 32 mb @ 221 mhz!! Jane's has optimized SPECIFICALLY for 3DFX cards! If what they want to do is to go back to their old ways of kissing 3DFX's rump and catering to them alone, whilst proclaiming equality on their boxes, they're going to piss off a lot of people. 3DFX has lost their footing in the industry and companies like Matrox are the new front-runners. I bought my Max because of the fresh thinking that Matrox represents. You know, come to think about it, it's NOT Jane's....it's EA ! And yes I have an SLI setup in my system along with my Max, that's not the point. The point is misleading advertising. That's what "recommended" means, right?! The box SHOULD say "Minimum requirements: nVidia, S3, Matrox, ATI chipsets---Recommended: 3DFX chipsets". Then it's MY choice if I want to "make do" with sub-standard performance. I am just so $%^&ing sick and tired of game companies treating us like lemmings. Beta games like Battlezone II and Ultima IX and false advertising on the boxes of games like NFS, Jane's, etc. We spend MILLIONS a year on games and this is what we get ?! Man I wish I had some say in this crap, I'd hold SOMEONE responsible. How about a class action suit? These people learned NOTHING from the Ultima Online debacle. If developers had the final say, instead of the publishers we'd have games that get delayed by a few months, SO WHAT!!! I'll wait if it means playing a smoking game that we can all enjoy talking about on MURC. Then the subject of our posts in this fori will be game-play oriented, not this crap.

I apologize for taking up space with this rant. I have done this testing for the past 2 1/2 hours so that we all may benefit from the truth, as crappy as it may be.

Bud

[This message has been edited by exG-man (edited 18 January 2000).]

[Kookstick]

ex-Gman- Don't take it personal,even when you do get the game running the graphics are so poor you will wish you never bought it, the hud is so tiny on my 19" minitor I can't even read a thing. Take the game back and take my advice that was passed in to me by someone else here(sorry can't remember who) and buy mig alley, I am having more fun with this game than I've had in a flight sim in a long time and the graphics are awesome. You'll drool over the terrain and when your canopy gets cracked from enemy fire you hear the wind rushing in. Trust me it's a blast..BTW how's your buddy that went airbourne on his sled?I live in san diego but every year I go to my parents lake home in hayward wisconsin to ride their Vmax's and I know how dangerous snowmobiles can be. Hope he is doing well. Later

[exG-man]

Kookstick,
You're absolutely right. While I was writing my frustrations down in my tirade, you posted about Mig Alley. Then when I hit "refresh", I saw your post. Mig Alley is hand's down the best sim I've played in a long, long time. For you fellow MURCers that don't have it, GET IT ! It shows how you can do a "technically correct" sim that is a ball to play. It's hard, but that's fine. I've had NO problems with it at all, and it LOVES my Max. I agree wholeheartedly, it's going back to the store.

Thank you very much for your concern about Danny Maxwell. As of earlier today, he's real bad. Did some serious damage to his head. I'm praying he makes it through this.